Something I've heard a lot of authors talk about in various interviews, Q&A sessions, and, if I'm lucky, casual conversations I get to have with them, is what they're interested in writing about. This ranges from thematic content (ex: loss of innocence, redemption, futility, tragedy) to plot devices, to character archetypes, political contexts (rebellions, wars, economic turmoil) and so on. A lot of the time these interests aren't even things the writers actively think of. It's just what they're naturally drawn to.

But I think it is an interesting thing to think about, and can be helpful to your writing. It can help you better define your identity as a writer, and it can also allow you to see where you may be repeating yourself too much. I tend to write a lot about messed up families, death, abuse, sadness/depression/grief--pleasant things. Knowing that has let me get better at writing those kinds of stories, but it also reminds me that, now and then, I need to step away from that. I need to focus on something other than families. I need to bring some happiness into my stories.

But even more so: I write about how the mind works. The mind of specific characters. The personas in my poems have motives, habits, coping mechanisms, "quirks", that can be traced back to some base element of their personality and/or past. Lots of depression and mania. Some melancholy family history. Zachary doesn't have a job or a college major or even a specific life stage, but he has a POV. It is a POV that shifts with circumstances and mental state.

Somewhere between the two above things lies the idea of place. Most of my motifs even tie back to this. Buildings, mountains, small towns, the residents of those small towns (see: character). The people I meet or watch & whose minds I want to write are inextricably linked to the places I find them in. (Travel station in NY vs small Midwestern Kroger.)

This all turns back around to psychoanalyzing myself, of course, because all of the motifs and interests link back there.

What I write about usually seems to revolve around how the human brain would function in a given situation, which means I tend to use thoughts and dreams (sometimes hallucinations) a lot, while not focusing on other smaller details.

I've written a lot about darkness, how people fight the darkness within them, how other people cope when someone is dead or while watching someone struggle. One thing I feel like overdo at times is the use of dreams. I used to use it every time I wanted to show the mental disturbance in a person's head.

I used to write about lighter, happier stuff when I was younger. It probably wasn't well executed but, I did write about such topics at one time.

Right now, most of my writing revolves around my interest in Artificial Intelligence, which leads me to write about how the human mind and brain work. I should try to go back and write about some lighter topics again.

Character development. Plain and simple. I like to take my characters on journeys learning one thing about life to the next. Usually this is how I plot a series of books. I don't see them so much as a series of physical adventures but more like "Okay so now he/she's gonna learn about love and then in the next book that belief will be shattered when X thing happens and then the third book will---"

That's kind of how I like to write my novels, too. I'm really interested in challenging my characters' morally, so I try to create plot points that will confound and oppose their sense of morality. In my most recent novel I used a physical adventure as a means to have my main character encounter different moral issues (as well as pursue his goal).